is my Lo (9w) getting to the Hind milk?

[Angela and Victoria]

Hi

I have a dilemma regarding the milk i am producing/my LO gets to.

From the Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, i am reading that there are 3 "layers/types" of milk in there, that the Lo should get to:
1) Quencher (taken in the first 5-10 min)- meant to satisfy the baby's thirst
2) Foremilk (starts 5-8 min into the feed) -with high protein content, good for bones and brain development
3) Hind milk (starts 15-18 min into the feed)- thick and creamy, full with fat, helps the baby put on weight.

Tracy also says that if you express and leave your milk out for one hour it separates into these 3 distinct parts. However..my milk only separates into 2 distinct parts when i pump it out.  Also, my Lo does not nurse more than 10 min at one side (she just does not want more, but will gladly take the other side ).

So my questions are:
A: Can it be that my Lo (9w) does not get to the Hind milk? Or maybe she is that good of a sucker? ( her poo is yellow mustard and is taking weight good according to the doctor)
B: Could it be that my body stopped  producing Hind milk? (or maybe i should pump for longer time to try to get it out?)

I am a bit confused, and thinking that maybe she does not get all the fat milk she needs during the day and this is why she wakes up in the night. Could this be?

Thanks for your answers.

[Jocasta]

I only notice two types with my milk too - the hind milk looks like a cream and solidifies somewhat on the top - it's also white in colour when the other part can be yellowish, blueish, greenish etc.

Some babies are much more efficient than others.  DD1 would feed for an hour but DD2 feeds for anywhere between 5mins and 20 mins.  Aslo, fwiw, when I pump for only 5mins, I still get hind milk come out!

[RachelC]

Hi there.  I was so freaked out with my first dd because she would only be on the breast for 10 minutes (total... both sides!) from the beginning.  Turns out she was indeed a super sucker, as she gained 3 lbs in her first month!

Like all of Tracy's advice, it is a guideline.  Some babies and women take less time, some take more.  I really never noticed 3 layers of milk when I pumped... maybe only when I left it over night.  If she is gaining weight, producing 6+ wet diapers a day, and lasting 2.5-3 hours between feeds, I would say she is doing great.

How often is she waking at night?  It is extremely common for a 9 week old to be waking twice for feeds at night.  What does your EASY look like?

[Samuel's mum]

Plenty of people only notice 2 parts to their milk when it separates. And plenty of babies can get a full feed in 10 minutes or less (mine included - even from a very young age). Weight good and yellow poo suggests all is fine. If she is coming off the breast by herself then she's saying she's done. Short feeds can sometimes be a problem when very young babies fall asleep at the breast before a feed is finished. That's not your situation.

You would expect a 9 week old to wake up at least 2 times between bedtime and morning. Night feeds are also important in the development of your milk supply so nature isn't daft.

[Angela and Victoria]

Hello

Thank you all for your posts. I do feel relived now hearing that you also see only 2 layers, in the milk, and that your babies are also not staying too long on the breast.
 
RachelC, I started E.A.S.Y. about 2 weeks ago.
I put my Lo to bed between 18:30-19:30 for the night, and then will give her a fed at around 23:00 (i wake her up, as when i tried to DF, i had the feeling she did not take enough and she ended waking up much earlier than usual in the night). Normally (for a good night)she wakes up somewhere between  3-4 in the night and then she makes it till 5:30-6:30. If she wakes up before 6 i feed her and try to put her back to sleep hopefully till around 7. Any waking up after 6 i treat it as the start of the day and from then on we start EASY, so her schedule is slightly different from day to day, depending on her waking time. I feed her every 2.5-3h. Her awake time is 1h15'- 1h30'. She sleeps independently or with a bit of help using shh/pat (no dummy). Unfortunately i don't manage to "regulate" the durations of her naps to well. One nap can last anywhere between 2h, 1h30',1h,45',30', and she can have different combination of these naps, so she kind of does not have some specific hours during the day when she naps. I put her to bed following her clues and i hope that at one point she will develop some more predictable sleeping patterns.  ::)I decided to stop worrying about this any more and to take it easy, as it is better for my mood and also the mood and thus the quality of life in my home is better .

If you have any advice please don't hesitate. Otherwise, really thank you everyone again for your posts? It made me really feel better regarding the quality of my milk. 

Angela

[RachelC]

It seems as though your EASY is perfect!  Yup, varies from day to day and nap to nap!  You are following his cues, and that's what BW is all about.

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you don't dreamfeed?  Or perhaps, more the df up to 10?  Have you tried expressing for the df?  That worked much better for us... dd didn't have to be as awake 

[Angela and Victoria]

Rachel C, i am happy to hear that you think my EASY is good :-) I'll continue this path then :-D

Instead of the dreamfeed, i actually wake her up at 11 and feed her. Normally she takes both my breasts at that time, and when i tried the DF a couple of time, she only took 1 breasts and ended up waking earlier/more often in the night. However, for 2 days she is taking only 1 side at 11, so if this will continue for one week, i can think about introducing the DF at 11 instead of the full waking up.

Although, today thinking of the DF, i was wondering what is the benefit of doing a DF rather than waking up the Lo, feeding him and pouting him straight to bed (maybe i don't see the advantage because my Lo is going to sleep by herself at 11 even if i put her down with her eyes wide open..)


Regarding expresing, i have done it/ and do it still. However i think we did a mistake and for the past month we have been given the Lo only  like once or twice per week from the bottle, and now i notice that she seem to forget how to suck from the bottle. It is always a struggle to make her take the bottle..or maybe she is not hungry (motivated) enough

[RachelC]

The advantage to the df as opposed to actually waking is that the lo will sleep through it and learn to sleep the longer stretch.  You could try using a bottle of expressed milk for the df... it worked better for us since dd didn't have to work for the milk, it just started dripping.

[lidiayy]

Angela, sorry to butt in your post, but I've been thinking the same last night while BF'ing my DD (14 wks old).

Rachel C: my LO has been on EASY since 4 wks old and she is now 3.5 hrs EASY. I've started DF at 11 pm, just as Angela does and so far my LO still wakes up for a feed (3 - 4 am). I know that it's quite normal for her age, but when is she supposed to have learnt to sleep the longer stretch?

Thanks

Lidia

[RachelC]

One feed at night (after the df) is quite normal for quite some time.  Even after weaning the df (around 7 months for dd2) we still had another night feed.  In fact, dd2 kept her 5am feed until 22 months!

This FAQ may help too:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=98183.0

HTH